Posts made by gryphter

Another random thought: the first person to pose in has only the GM's set to work with. Someone that waits until four or five other people have gone now has everything to react to.

IC trappings of the characters involved can be a factor too. If I'm a Corporal and there are Captains and senior NCOs around, mine is not to 'lead the way' (at least until I'm ordered to).

I'm not scared to dive in, but I've learned that being the one to do this every time is also not a good look. Collaboration is knowing how to let the spotlight shine on others. I'll watch so much of that awkward dead air before I realize nobody else wants to dive in, and now I feel more sympathetic to the ST who is just waiting for someone to respond, so I do.

@Joyeuse That may be so, but people have made successful entrance much younger. I don't think ageism has ever really been one of our -isms in here.

I found MU* about 25 years ago, around the time I was 10, and fell in face first. I was better at interacting with people through that black void, and I could be people in wild situations the likes of which I would never dare actually put myself in. Social situations moreso than adventurous ones. I'll go on an adventure right now as long as I don't have to speak to a human on it.

I do believe that growing up from that point onward more interested in interacting with people through my favored translator had a serious impact on my social skills in the real world. I'm an extroverted introvert kind of monstrosity who struggles to communicate really anything at all verbally, to physically-present humans. I can recall when I was much younger having to visualize writing what I wanted to say in my brain like a pose, then just grit my teeth and read the damned thing out loud.

I didn't do as much of this as I might wish I had done, because why would I? Real, present humans are scary as fuck, and there are MU*s waiting.

I've made great strides, but it's still a gulf -- a gap -- that remains impactful. I avoid actual physically-present interactions with other people to the greatest possible extent and am generally accounted a much less pleasant, affable, and social person out in The Real. That's to this day.

So I submit, albeit anecdotally, that a preference for living in the black screen probably does have a maladaptive impact to some extent or other. Depending on how young you were when you moved in and how immersed you were, I would imagine, you would see this to a greater or lesser extent.

ETA: This felt super bleak for the tone of this thread, so I wanted to inject some optimism. I also gleaned from this hobby organisational and business writing skills that nobody in my professional climate can match, which pay my bills. All is not lost; abandon not hope, ye who enter here.

@Wretched I identify with so much of this.

I'll be very interested in seeing how they handle Powers that some can and some can't see. Will we the viewers always be able to see Saidar and Saidin both as well as the True Power?

@eye8urcake I've been listening to the new album since Friday like it's the only music in the world. I missed pre-ordering through Amazon and had to go through a lesser-known service, and as a result didn't get my hard copy until yesterday.

Which was great for me, because I got two Toolmases. My friend and I were discussing how Tool always seems to come with an album full of the messages you need right now, and Fear Inoculum doesn't disappoint.

This would be fun.

@surreality Solid points here. Personally if someone is STing at me and giving of their time and creativity, I don't give a shit if the grammar and spelling are off and it's riddled with typos. I'll look past it to the story you're gracious enough to include me in.

Culturally encouraging new players -- or less outgoing older players, because we're not getting everything we could out of everyone in the hobby already now -- to step up and boldly contribute is certainly part of what we need to do. Our modernization efforts incorporating the things we've learned along the way have helped that a lot, but there's more yet to go.

A sticking point I see with handing out tangible unbalancing rewards in a system like this, though, is making it possible for anyone, at any skill level, to contribute and benefit if they wish. Otherwise you're going to run into the same dinosaur/balance issues and Timmy the burgeoning new hobbyist is left out with an underwhelming character because he doesn't know how to @dig and can't write a desc anyone wants to read. He can't figure out a way to bridge the gap so he gets frustrated and logs off to go play WoW vanilla.

ETA: I don't know how disturbed I really am that people who contribute to the game get to benefit more from it. I really just want Timmy to have a way to participate.

@surreality Certainly tangible in-game benefits and recognition on a game you love playing would be just as good as cash to some.

@surreality I would really love to see something like this become a thing. I'm sold.

@Tinuviel Happy birthday, I got you an upvote.

@surreality This tickles a not-unrelated concept in my brain where I wish our artistic players were tangibly rewarded for their very real artistic contributions.

The evolving dream, then, is not one of wage-enforced servitude to any given game, but a system that rewards people willing to do tasks. You put more time in the hobby, you extract more reward -- maybe even enough to pay your bills, if that's what you want to do with all your time.

This really has me thinking.

@surreality I like this because contributors continue to do so on a volunteer basis, yet are rewarded tangibly for doing so.

@surreality This is thought-provoking. A task-based economy that folks could freelance into might very well stand a chance of funding some passion, in whole or part. I'd do building and writing out of things, creation of roster characters, or whatever else for a little extra spending money. I'm sure others would too. It needn't necessarily be a thing where you work for ArxMUSH Incorporated, to pick on a huge game.

@mietze I would pay that without blinking. That's not much more expensive than a subscription to Dragonrealms used to be. Granted, I'm not 200 people.